World's Fair of Money rakes in visitors

Show could see a 1792 U.S. coin and a $1,000 note each sell for more than $1 million

August 15, 2013|By Mugambi Mutegi, Chicago Tribune reporter

Collector and dealer John Rowe gets a close-up look at a rare 1792 half disme coin to be auctioned at the World's Fair of Money exhibit in Rosemont. (Antonio Perez, Chicago Tribune)

They have flown in from Germany, Switzerland, Australia and France hoping to snag deals on coins and notes worth anywhere from a couple hundred dollars to well over $1 million.

More than $1 billion worth of historic and rare coins and paper money were being offered at the annual World's Fair of Money Convention at the Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, just an "L" stop from O'Hare International Airport. The five-day fair runs through Saturday.

The star attractions are a U.S. 1792 half disme (an early spelling of dime) which is expected to sell for more than $1 million. and an 1863 U.S. $1,000 Legal Tender note is expected to fetch $1.2 million.

Both were to be auctioned by New York-based Stack's Bowers Galleries, which specializes in rare currency.

"Not only have we seen people coming in from different parts of the world, but many more are following the event and bidding online," said David Bowers, the firm's chairman emeritus.

But Damian Mariniak, 35, who few in from Poland, said he wasn't keen on pricey items but instead was looking for commodity-grade Russian and Polish currencies and bonds that he could sell at a profit back home.

On Tuesday, tables in the main exhibition hall displayed thousands of coins of different shapes, sizes and colors from countries such as Ethiopia, China and Japan — each illustrated with figures and images symbolic to their place of origin.

Money was everywhere, and so was security.

People moved from one booth to the next, flipped through colorful brochures advertising various coins, and inspected coins they fancied, holding each under a table light and squinting through magnifying glasses to assess quality.

The fair drew about 1,000 dealers as well as collectors like Linda Fentou, from Massachusetts, who in high school started collecting currencies featuring the likeness of Queen Elizabeth I. Later she began collecting ancient coins from countries she and her husband visited.

Now over 65 years old, Fentou said she was hoping to find ancient Carthage coins. She declined to say what her collection was worth.

"If you are going into it with the idea of getting the next big thing and making a lot of money, then it's not going to happen. But if you collect something that you like and you have reasonable taste, when the time comes to sell, you will do OK," Fentou said.

Some collectors weren't so reticent about discussing the value of their holdings.

New Yorker Bruce Hagen, 55, who started collecting when he was 12, said his 300-piece collection is now worth less than $1 million after he sold off more than 1,000 items in the last five years.

"I like collecting currencies that are associated with major historical events," Hagen said.

He likes ancient Greek coins and American paper money from the 1700s and the Civil War.

A self-described eccentric, Hagen said his expensive hobby had no relationship to his remaining a bachelor.